Somerville is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located two miles northwest of Boston. As of 2010, the United States Census has the city with a total population of 75,754 people, and is the most densely populated municipality in New England. As of 2000, it was the 15th most densely populated city in the country. Somerville was established as a town in 1842, when it was separated from Charlestown. In 2006, the town was named the best run city in Massachusetts by the Boston Globe. In 1972 and again in 2009, the city received the All-America City Award.

Due to Somerville's close proximity to various institutions of higher education, the city has a constant influx of college students and young professionals, who reside in sections near Cambridge where Harvard University, Lesley University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are located and near Tufts University, which straddles the Somerville-Medford city line. In November 1997, the Utne Reader named Davis Square in Somerville one of the 15 hippest places to live in the U.S. The article illustrates how Somerville is in an era of socioeconomic change shared by many other working-class and industrial areas of the country. Somerville is home to a thriving arts community and boasts the second highest number of artists per capita in America.

As of the 2010 census, there were 75,754 people, 33,720 households, and 14,673 families residing in the city. The population density was 18,404.8 people per square mile (7,278.4/kmē). There were 32,105 housing units at an average density of 7,909.1 per square mile (3,051.0/kmē).